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Why Haven't Vinyl Records Gone Extinct?

You can find music in a variety of formats today - on the Web as midi, wav, RealAudio, and mp3 files, or at your local music store on cassette, CD, or?vinyl. That's right - vinyl records are still very much alive. In fact, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sales of vinyl LPs in the U.S. rose by 4.5 percent in 2001, while CD and cassette sales actually decreased.

So, what gives? In a society where computers are often considered out of date if they are more than a year old, why are vinyl records, which were first invented in 1888, still popular?

Some people say that the popularity of vinyl has to do with the sound quality, others say it has a lot to do with nostalgia. According to the owner of a vinyl record store, her customers enjoy the "slightly worn" sound of a vinyl record. On the other hand, a spokesperson for the RIAA says that vinyl is popular because it is the "classic way of getting old music... the big reason is nostalgia".

Of course, one could argue that the above statements are somewhat biased, due to the close ties those people have to the music industry, so I decided to ask young people to find out what they thought. Is it the sound quality that makes vinyl popular today, or does nostalgia account for the LP's popularity? Many of the people I spoke with - 80 percent, in fact - thought that nostalgia was the reason for the long life span of the vinyl record.

So, nostalgia rules the day, huh? Case closed... well maybe not. There is a third possible reason why the LP is still around. There is a wider range of music - from decades past, as well as present-day - available on vinyl than CD. It's true - remixes for Mary J. Blige and Kylie Minogue can only be found on vinyl in the United States. When it came time for the single "Can't Get You Out of My Head" to be released in the U.S., it was released on vinyl, not as a CD single.

The debate as to why vinyl is still popular may never be completely resolved. One thing seems certain: vinyl is not going to go extinct anytime soon.